July the 29th.
Today is the day when Microsoft release Windows 10 as a free upgrade for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users.
Those people who have already signed up to the Windows Insider programme will have been playing around with Windows 10 for some months now, and helped to pave the way for a bug-free launch – Or have they?
Only 2-3 days ago, Microsoft was feverishly trying to plug holes in Windows 10 prior to its release, so there is a high probability that today is the day when many hundreds of thousands of Windows 10 upgraders will start screaming at their PCs, laptops and tablets.
Historically, OS bugs only tend to get ironed out with Service Pack 1, when the OS becomes much more stable and reliable.
Given that Microsoft is giving away Windows 10 as a free upgrade, the percentage of early adopters could well be the highest in history.
Windows 10 shows promise and has addressed many of the issues that customers had with Windows 8/8.1 but worldwide uptake is likely to be high and rapid: Too many bugs and issues will likely lead to much wringing of hands and general despair – So I really hope that Microsoft have got things right.
Will you be upgrading? Don’t forget to leave comments and share this article.
I have four Windows 7 laptops and a new Windows 8 tablet. Yes, I will upgrade all of these at some point. (Early indications are that Windows 10 doesn’t like tablets at all, so this device will have to wait.)
Like many people, I have been waiting for this day, but now it’s here I’m not so sure that I’ll be clicking “update” within the next few days or weeks.
I’d like to hear what the world has to say about the new upgrade (and its inevitable problems) prior to borking any of my laptops, and I would encourage others to do the same.
My wife is likely to divorce me if I “helpfully” upgrade her laptop and turn it into a clunky, non-responsive paperweight that doesn’t make her life easier.
There’s a good chance that she will also hate the new interface, which I will get blamed for.
All is not lost, however!
Microsoft is allowing anyone that upgrades to Windows 10 to roll back to their original operating system within one month of upgrading if they don’t like Windows 10.
If you wait longer than one month, you can still use your original Windows recovery disks to restore your system to how it originally was – If you don’t have these disks, don’t forget to create backup and restore media using either a DVD or USB stick prior to upgrading to Windows 10!
The safest option is to wait.
You have a full year from today to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, so there’s no rush and you might as well let the early adopter guinea pigs suffer the inevitable glitches, patches and headaches until a tried, tested and stable version of Windows 10 is available.
Microsoft is rolling out Windows 10 today – but this rollout is staggered to avoid overwhelming their servers, so you may not be able to simply click “upgrade” this morning.
Why is Windows 10 important?
Well, for those (such as myself) using Windows 7 (which is a good OS), we have been left behind with the inability to sync bookmarks and settings, amongst other key features. However, Windows 8 has not been without its own issues, so this upgrade should be a useful one.
Windows 7 has also been around for about five years now, and to get a free upgrade is a no-brainer.
For Windows Phone users, the upgrade is not happening for a few months due to problems that were highlighted by Microsoft a few weeks ago.
I wouldn’t expect to see Windows 10 arrive on any of my phones until at least five months from now.
Given the rollout of 8.1, this took a fair few months longer than expected, so whilst it won’t be happening any time soon, it will happen.
As a Windows Phone 8.1 user, just the upgrade from Windows 7 on my laptops is enough to help bring my devices in parallel with each other, so the fact that my phones aren’t yet upgraded to Windows 10 isn’t an issue. The cross-device syncing is enough to keep me happy and satisfied that I don’t need to return to the Android OS.
Upgrading is inevitable, as unless you are tied in to a corporate IT system, then you would be mad to ignore upgrading your OS to something that will keep your device relatively current for the next few years, the question that you need to ask yourself is when.
